7:40

The Chorus Room in PVHS, a.k.a. the Alto / Tenor sax / Mellophone sectional room during summer marching band camp

"Are we there yet?" Steven, a freshmen tenor sax player, complained after the section had gone two feet away from the band room.

"No," mellophone section leader, Tony, glared. "We aren't. So shush. We have…what, another two feet to go? Do you think you can manage that?"

Steven glared back, falling back to walk with some of his other little freshmen buddies, grumbling softly under his breath to his friends, one of whom was Erik, who just poked him.

"I hate those freshmen that think they know everything, or complain about every little thing," Tony said loudly to the alto sax section leader, Eddie Watts, who just went by Watts.

"I heard that," Steven informed Tony.

"That was the point!" Tony shot back before turning to Watts and sighing a loud exasperated sigh.

"You'd better shut up," Watts said over his shoulder, "or we can make you run cymbal laps."

"What the hell is a cymbal lap?"

7:41

PVHS's Auditorium on the stage, which was home to Battery Drumline during marching season

"A cymbal lap," Drumline section leader, Kyle, informed the rest of the line, "is a method of torture that some Drumline section leader from decades back thought of, and it's been used ever since by Drumline SLs who are fed up with their section."

The Drumline were currently sitting in a circle on the stage, their drums and harnesses in a big pile behind them. Kyle was the only one standing up, his hands behind his back as he talked and walked.

"Everybody in this 'Line is guaranteed to do it at least twice. There is just no avoiding it. Eventually you are going to piss me off, and then it's off running with you. And trust me - you will piss me off eventually."

All the upperclassmen's eyes automatically traveled to Trevor, a junior quads player, who twiddled his thumbs innocently.

"Or, if you are like Trevor over here," Kyle continued, "you'll be running one every practice. Now, what is a cymbal lap, exactly? Like I said, it's an ancient method of torture for the Drumline. Basically, it consists of you taking your drum and running how ever many laps the SL deems worthy. It normally depends on your instrument and what you did to piss me off. Cymbal players normally have to run more, since their instruments are lighter."

"I have a question," ever-quiet Jake said, raising his hand. "Why is it called a cymbal lap if the whole 'Line runs it?"

"Shouldn't you know this?" Kyle asked, "Seeing as how your brother is the DM…but, meh, he's not in Drumline, so I wouldn't expect him to know. It started as being just a thing that the cymbals had to do, to make up for their instruments being so light while the drummers' had such heavy things to carry. The section leader that first thought of this as a way to make the cymbal players feel even a little ounce of the pain that us drummers have to go through. Since then, various SLs have started using it as a form of punishment, which brings us to today, where the other sections have started copying us and making their people run laps with their instruments as punishment. But the idea for it rests solely with us – but whether that is good or bad, I'll let you decide."

"I decide it's bad," Trevor voted.

"No shit," Kyle retorted.

"Kyle!" one of the only female battery drummers, Jessie, scolded him. "There are young and impressionable freshmen here. Don't hurt their innocent ears with such foul language."

"Oh. Right. Sorry," Kyle apologized, looking straight at Jake, who leaned back and groaned.

"Why must you do that?" he questioned from his position on the floor. "Is it because I happen to be brother to the drum major? Do you think that I'll go crying to Ry because you happened to curse? Well, guess what – so does he. You know him, and his mouth, and you know Annie and hers, and you know the tweebs and their – ok, bad example there, but still. You know my siblings, you don't have to protect me, because I've heard worse from the Drum Major himself."

For most of the people in the line, – the upperclassmen who had known Jake for a few years by all the times he was forced to go to band things to see his older siblings – that was the most they had ever heard Jake O'Connell talk. Half of them had believed Annie when she tried to tell them that it was impossible for Jake to make any noise.

"Wow," Trevor breathed. "Dude. You can talk."

"Dude. Yeah," Jake nodded.

Kyle stared at Jake in awe for a few seconds before getting poked by Jessie.

"Right," he said, moving around right now. "Back to Drumline. We are the cool part of the line. The other people, the pit, are – "

7:42

PVHS's Band Room, which during the day while the marchers marched, the Pit took over and claimed as their own

" - Are the lazy, sad excuse for Marching Banders," Max Pahl informed the Pit.

The other four people in Pit were sprawled out across the room. One person was curled up under the tympanis, some soft snoring echoing out; another was sitting in the tall rack of chairs, while the other two were sitting against the wall, facing Max.

"Aww, Max, you can't mean that," the boy sitting on top of the chairs protested. "You always say that we are the best section ever."

"Because we are," Max agreed. "And c'mon, Charlie, get off of those, I don't want to have to explain to Blake why we lost our best mallet player because he fell off a chair."

Charlie jumped down, joining the two people against the wall. "So why did you just say we are pointless?"

"Because we are," Max repeated. "I was just about to get into that. I had this whole speech written up, which I guess now would be a good time to do – and of course, Logan is asleep for it. Somebody go wake him up."

The boy against the wall jumped up and ran over to Logan, blowing on his face and stepping on his stomach until he rolled over and protested.

"Up," the boy ordered to the groggy Logan, who groaned and sat up, joining everybody against the wall.

"I said wake him up, Sean, not kill him," Max said amusedly. "But now that we are all here and awake, I think it's time for the first official Circ-Sec of the year."

Lily, the only freshmen and the only female of the group, raised her hair slowly. "What's a Circ-Sec?" she asked hesitantly.

Max grinned at her. "That's my favorite question of all time."

Logan groaned. "Aww, no…now he's going to get started on his whole Circ-Sec speech."

"I can even recite it!" Sean announced. " 'The Circ-Sec is my own little invention I made when I became Pit SL. It stands for Circle-Sectional, which was too long to say so I shortened it. I wanted a chance for everybody in pit to have their own little bonding time, since we are around each other so much.' "

" 'So, the Circ-Sec was invented,' " Charlie took over. " 'The CS is basically the Pities sitting around in a circle on the dirty, cold hard gym floor, 'bonding.' Or, as the case normally is, trying to pass the time.' "

" 'The Circ-Sec is used to have discussions about band if we need them, like, about the music or marching band in general,' " Logan continued. " ' Or, it can be used to talk about anything during the long hours the Pit is stuck inside the band room. It's also a good time to eat the candy that somebody normally brings. ' "

"Yep, that's a Circ-Sec," Max nodded to Lily. "Basically, the Pit is stuck inside most of band camp while the marchers are outside marching, so we tend to get bored pretty fast. And being us being guys, we needed a way to entertain ourselves, so the CS was made. We just sit around talk or do whatever, but whenever the rest of the band comes it, it looks like we are doing something productive. Got it?"

Lily nodded.

"Good," Max decided. "Ok, first Circ-Sec of the year, so everybody, to the middle!"

All five of them trampled over to the middle of the band room floor, where all the backpacks and whatnot was quickly thrown to the sides of the room, and a circle formed by the Pit.

"Welcome," Max said seriously, "to Band. Woo! Ok, got that out. Now, obviously, we have a new person with us this year, so I think we should all go around and say our names, grades, why we are in pit, and…favorite ice cream flavor."

Coughs of "Loser!" could be heard from Charlie and Sean's side of the circle, with Logan sitting innocently nearby.

"Ha, ha," Max told them. "Charles. Why don't you start?"

Charlie glared at Max before clearing his throat. "I'm Charlie, I'm a senior, I'm in pit because my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Mr. Maxwell, is in pit and I couldn't bear to be separated from him. No, actually, I'm a kickass mallet player, and you can't play the mallets in Battery, so I decided my skills were best used here. Oh, and um…Mint chocolate chip. The green kind, though. Not the fake white mint ice-cream stuff."

"So I guess I'm next?" Sean asked. "Ok. Yo. I'm Sean, I'm a sophomore, I'm in pit because…well, I'm lazy, and didn't want to learn a whole new instrument, since I play the bassoon. And the whole 'marching for a ridicules number of hours during the day' thing didn't really sit well with me, so I decided pit was a better option. Chocolate chip cookie dough."

"Logan. You're up," Max told the other boy.

"No!" he protested. "You're next."

"We're skipping me for the time being," Max said. "Now go."

Logan was saved from going by the band room's double doors opening and Ryan sticking his head in.

"Ooh, the famous Pit Circ-Sec?" he asked. "Rock on. Max, I've been sent to tell you that the rest of the band is coming in soon, since Blake is ready for his speech, and that all the stuff you moved has to go back where you found it, and you can finish your circle later. Isn't is strange how well Blake knows you by now?"

"Scary," Max agreed, getting helped up by Charlie. "Ok, send them in."

((A/N: I'm in pit in my marching band, since I have bad knees, and at the start of the season, I was still recovering from major reconstructive knee surgery. I play the tenor sax in concert season, (But I'm switching to French Horn soon), so I'm sorry for focusing so much on the pit. That's going to be happening a lot in this story, just because I don't know a lot about the other aspects of marching band, since I don't march. But I think you'll find the Pit interesting enough…I know that my pit is, which I'm sort of basing this pit off of. Oh, but the Circ-Sec I made up five minutes ago. I like the idea of it, however…I think I'm going to use it when I'm pit SL in a few years.))

((Oh, and don't get used to everyday updates like this…normally, I updated about once every week or so, whenever I have time to sit down and write. I shouldn't even be writing now, I should be studying for a History midterm I have tomorrow…))